Dinas Vawr

Anglicized spelling of a fortress of bogus historicity invented by Thomas Love Peacock in the comic novel The Misfortunes of Elphin (1829). A poem within the novel, ‘The War-Song of Dinas Vawr’, portrays the delight of Welshmen in stealing sheep; later set to music it has almost the status of a folksong. Although Peacock does not posit a Welsh original, it should be dinas fawr (mawr) [big fort].